Composting
I'm a native Pennsylvanian who moved to San Francisco in 1970, via New York
City and London. I still am amazed at the year-round hummingbirds and
woodland strawberries, salvias in bloom at Christmas, etc. On my last trip
to Pennsylvania, I noticed how big the plants were in the summer in gardens
I visited. Maybe the dormancy over winter causes them to get so big so
fast, when it finally warms up. Here the same plants grow year round, but
not so big (here meaning fog belt San Francisco).